Ukraine says Russian forces step up nighttime shelling of cities in centre, north and south of the country

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Lviv
(Ukraine),
Mar
7:
Russian
forces
intensified
shelling
of
cities
in
Ukraine’s
centre,
north
and
south,
a
Ukrainian
official
said,
as
a
second
attempt
to
evacuate
besieged
civilians
collapsed.

With
the
Ukrainian
leader
urging
his
people
to
take
to
the
streets
to
fight,
Russian
President
Vladimir
Putin
shifted
blame
for
the
invasion,
saying
Moscow’s
attacks
could
be
halted
“only
if
Kyiv
ceases
hostilities.”

The
outskirts
of
Kyiv,
Chernihiv
in
the
north,
Mykolaiv
in
the
south,
and
Kharkiv,
the
country’s
second-largest
city,
faced
stepped-up
shelling
late
Sunday,
presidential
adviser
Oleksiy
Arestovich
said.

Heavy
artillery
hit
residential
areas
in
Kharkiv
and
shelling
damaged
a
television
tower,
according
to
local
officials.
The
attacks
dashed
hopes
that
more
people
could
escape
the
fighting
in
Ukraine,
where
Russia’s
plan
to
quickly
overrun
the
country
has
been
stymied
by
fierce
resistance.

Russia
has
made
significant
advances
in
southern
Ukraine
and
along
the
coast,
but
many
of
its
efforts
have
become
stalled,
including
an
immense
military
convoy
that
has
been
almost
motionless
for
days
north
of
Kyiv.

Food,
water,
medicine
and
almost
all
other
supplies
were
in
desperately
short
supply
in
the
southern
port
city
of
Mariupol,
where
Russian
and
Ukrainian
forces
had
agreed
to
an
11-hour
cease-fire
that
would
allow
civilians
and
the
wounded
to
be
evacuated.
But
Russian
attacks
quickly
closed
the
humanitarian
corridor,
Ukrainian
officials
said.

“There
can
be
no
green
corridors’ because
only
the
sick
brain
of
the
Russians
decides
when
to
start
shooting
and
at
whom,”
Interior
Ministry
adviser
Anton
Gerashchenko
said
on
Telegram.

A
third
round
of
talks
between
Russian
and
Ukrainian
leaders
is
planned
for
Monday.
Ukrainian
President
Volodymyr
Zelenskyy
rallied
his
people
to
remain
defiant,
especially
those
in
cities
occupied
by
Russians.

“You
should
take
to
the
streets!
You
should
fight!” he
said
Saturday
on
Ukrainian
television.

“It
is
necessary
to
go
out
and
drive
this
evil
out
of
our
cities,
from
our
land.”
Zelenskyy
also
asked
the
United
States
and
NATO
countries
to
send
more
warplanes
to
Ukraine,
though
that
idea
is
complicated
by
logistical
questions
about
how
to
provide
aircraft
to
Ukrainian
pilots.
He
later
urged
the
West
to
tighten
its
sanctions
on
Russia,
saying
that
“the
audacity
of
the
aggressor
is
a
clear
signal”
that
existing
sanctions
are
not
enough.

The
war,
now
in
its
12th
day,
has
caused
1.5
million
people
to
flee
the
country.
The
head
of
the
UN
refugee
agency
called
the
exodus
“the
fastest-growing
refugee
crisis
in
Europe
since
World
War
II.”

A
senior
US
defense
official
said
Sunday
that
the
US
assesses
that
about
95
per
cent
of
the
Russian
forces
that
had
been
arrayed
around
Ukraine
are
now
inside
the
country.
The
official
said
Russian
forces
continue
to
advance
in
an
attempt
to
isolate
Kyiv,
Kharkhiv
and
Chernihiv,
but
are
being
met
with
strong
Ukrainian
resistance.

The
official,
who
spoke
on
condition
of
anonymity
to
discuss
military
assessments,
said
the
convoy
outside
Kyiv
continues
to
be
stalled.
As
he
has
often
done,
Putin
blamed
Ukraine
for
the
war,
telling
Turkish
President
Recep
Tayyip
Erdogan
on
Sunday
that
Kyiv
needed
to
stop
all
hostilities
and
fulfil
“the
well-known
demands
of
Russia.”

Putin
launched
his
invasion
with
a
string
of
false
accusations
against
Kyiv,
including
that
it
is
led
by
neo-Nazis
intent
on
undermining
Russia
with
the
development
of
nuclear
weapons.

The
Russian
Defence
Ministry
on
Sunday
announced
that
its
forces
intend
to
strike
Ukraine’s
military-industrial
complex
with
what
it
said
were
precision
weapons.

A
ministry
spokesman,
Igor
Konashenkov,
claimed
in
a
statement
carried
by
the
state
news
agency
Tass
that
Ukrainian
personnel
were
being
forced
to
repair
damaged
military
equipment
so
that
it
could
be
sent
back
into
action.
Zelenskyy
criticized
Western
leaders
for
not
responding
to
Russia’s
latest
threat.

“I
didn’t
hear
even
a
single
world
leader
react
to
this,”
Zelenskyy
said
Sunday
evening.
The
Russian
Defence
Ministry
also
alleged,
without
providing
evidence,
that
Ukrainian
forces
are
plotting
to
blow
up
an
experimental
nuclear
reactor
in
Kharkiv
and
to
blame
it
on
a
Russian
missile
strike.

Putin
and
French
President
Emmanuel
Macron
spoke
Sunday
about
the
nuclear
situation
in
Ukraine,
which
has
15
nuclear
reactors
at
four
power
plants
and
was
the
scene
of
the
1986
Chernobyl
nuclear
disaster.
The
men
agreed
in
principle
to
a
“dialogue” involving
Russia,
Ukraine
and
the
UN’s
atomic
watchdog,
according
to
a
French
official
who
spoke
on
condition
of
anonymity,
in
line
with
the
presidency’s
practices.
Potential
talks
on
the
issue
are
to
be
organized
in
the
coming
days,
he
said.

Putin
also
blamed
the
fire
last
week
at
the
Zaporizhzhia
nuclear
plant,
which
Ukrainian
officials
said
was
caused
by
Russian
attackers,
on
a
“provocation
organized
by
Ukrainian
radicals.”
International
leaders,
as
well
as
Pope
Francis,
appealed
to
Putin
to
negotiate.

In
a
highly
unusual
move,
the
pope
said
he
had
dispatched
two
cardinals
to
Ukraine
to
try
to
end
the
conflict.
“In
Ukraine,
rivers
of
blood
and
tears
are
flowing,”
the
pontiff
said
in
his
traditional
Sunday
blessing.
The
death
toll
remains
unclear.
The
UN
says
it
has
confirmed
just
a
few
hundred
civilian
deaths
but
also
warned
that
the
number
is
a
vast
undercount.